Our Services

Develop Management Systems

We can assist companies to establish, implement and maintain management systems that that are compliant to ISO9001:2015 Quality, ISO14001:2015 Environment and ISO45001:2018 Management System Standards. Whilst there may be no business driver for external certification of the systems by a UKAS accredited certification body, companies are recommended to have systems that are inline with the standards as this provides assurance that the company is compliant. When tendering for work the vast majority of buyers will accept that the system is inline with, rather than certified to, the ISO standards. When companies have more than 20 employees or work in vey high risk areas, external certification starts to provide real value.

The system is an integrated system covering health, safety, environment, human resources. Many companies, particularly smaller companies tend to overlook a need for HR procedures but this system includes this.

The management system is designed to meet a number of needs for companies not just for a singular Audit need. Companies having this system have been audited and accepted /awarded:

• RISQS
• Achilles Link-Up
• Achilles UVDB
• Achilles Building Confidence
• CHAS
• Constructionline
• SafeContractor
• ISO9001:2015
• ISO14001:2015
• ISO45001:2018

The system can be further enhanced with modules for:

• FORS – Fleet Recognition Scheme
• Drug & Alcohol Testing
• Rail Medicals
• NSAR – Training

Write and Implement Policies

For almost all applications / audits as well as legal reasons, certain policies are always required which we always prepare. Where a request is made for a policy that is not within our library then we will research and prepare one. In all cases we give advice on the needs and actions a policy may demand. It may be as simple as signing, displaying and briefing to all staff or it may involve preparing additional procedures, forms or processes. When undertaking the research all of this is looked into and advice given of what impact implementing such policy may involve.

Companies are required to hold a large number of policies including, but not limited to:

• Quality Policy
• Health and Safety Policy
• Environmental Policy
• Alcohol and Drugs Policy
• Anti Corruption, Bribery, Fraud and Anti-Competitive Practices Policy
• Corporate Responsibility, Ethics & Sustainability Policy
• Right to Work in UK Policy
• Equality, Inclusion and Diversity Policy
• Security Policy
• Timber Policy
• Work Safe Policy
• Working Time and Fatigue Management Policy
• Information Security Policy
• Data Protection Policy
• Modern Slavery Policy
• Tax Evasion Policy
• Human Resource and Employment Policies

We can assist in the production and implementation of these policies, including training on their requirements.

Develop Procedures

Management Systems are made up of 9 core process procedures:

1. Risk Assessment and Planning – looking at business threats and opportunities, and how to reduce risks and maximise opportunity.
2. Information Management – Identification of legal and other requirements, and the management of documents and records.
3. Business Continuity – identifying potential business interruption events, minimising the risk of them happening, planning responses for them if they arise, testing and reviewing plans.
4. Human Resources – management of people including organisational structure, role profiles, recruitment & selection, induction, training, performance monitoring.
5. Infrastructure – management of premises, plant, equipment and vehicles, including PPE.
6. Outsourcing – management of suppliers & subcontractors, purchasing and goods / service receipt.
7. Service Delivery – enquiry handling, customer communications, job planning, service delivery, change management, post-delivery activities.
8. Performance Monitoring – management of supervision, inspection, internal audit, compliance evaluation and management review.
9. Improvement – Identification of opportunities for improvement proactively through looking at strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT, which links to Process No.1), and reactively through control of non-conformity including for management of complaints, audit negative findings and incident findings.

We work with clients to review their existing processes, to identify areas of improvement and assist in their delivery. We can either provide a full managed service or a mentored service supporting internal staff through training and supervision to meet requirements.

Audit Readiness

Before any audit we make sure you are fully geared up for it. Checks are made to ensure you have signed all key documents, spreadsheets are completed, and other evidence is gathered. If it is a “first” audit then in many cases it is deemed an “Empty system” meaning the auditor will concentrate more in checking you have all the right policies and procedures. For recertification audits, then the auditor will be looking for evidence that you are following procedures, that you are monitoring processes and collating Key Performance data as well as holding a Board meeting to review the data and setting about continuous improvement. Before any audit, we run a MS Teams meeting with you where we act as an auditor and will go through the whole process to check you are ready and to help you be able to know how to answer each question.

Provide advice on company qualifications, certifications and accreditations

Many audits require companies to train their staff to hold certain qualifications. There are many qualifications that can be listed but we only advise on what is mandatory along with what may be useful. Our knowledge of industries and the requirements will steer you in the right direction rather than you paying out for unnecessary courses and putting staff through unnecessary pain!

We have extensive experience in providing support to achieve various company qualifications, certifications and accreditations including but not limited to:

• ISO9001:2015 Quality, ISO14001:2015 Environment and ISO45001:2018 Health & Safety
• Safety Schemes in Procurement (SSIP) eg CHAS, SafeContractor, Acclaim etc
• Construction Sector Common Assessment Standard (CAS PAS91) Schemes Constructionline, Achilles
• Building Confidence, CHAS+
• RISQS (Rail) – Registration & Core, CDM, Sentinel & Safe Working Planning Audit
• Achilles UVDB (Utilities) – – Registration & Verify Audit
• ACS SIA Approved Security Contractor Scheme
• CyberEssentials
• and other sector specific schemes.

Gap Analysis & Audit Readiness

We can provide gap analyses on the above standards to determine the company’s readiness for the certification audit. This will review existing policies and procedures and provide a legal compliance evaluation to identify required areas for improvement.

When interviewing you, our first aim is to understand the scope of the work you do. We will then look at what (If any) certification you hold and what policies and procedures you already may have in place. Where necessary, we can put a full management system in place for you. Alternatively, we do not want to re-invent the wheel so if you have a good system in place already, then we will look at that and may suggest just enhancing it.

We will look at the size of your company in order to identify the type of assistance you may require. We have and continue to help small 1 person companies to large organisations where (As in one example) they had over 350 employees that held rail sentinel cards.

If you have never worked on the railway before then we can advise on all the steps involved along with how to look for work.

Business Consultation

We are here to help and advise. Whether it be for implementing a new process such as random drug & alcohol testing, training a management team how to monitor key health & safety performance, to advise a Board of the benefits of branching into an industry such as rail ot to expand and seek additional qualifications / awards such as ISO certification.

We can provide a range of other business consultation services including:

• Production of Construction Phase Plans, Quality Plans, Environment Plans, Risk Assessments and Method Statements.
• Production of Environmental Aspects & Impact Register
• Production of Legal Requirements Registers for each of the four UK countries and Republic of Ireland
• Bid Writing Services
• Internal Training on a variety of HSQE Issues
• Incident Investigation
• Site & Premises Audits
• Appointed competent HSQE Advisor Service Level Agreements

Frequently Asked Questions from our Customers